In late August of 2010, I was asked to present to the San Juan County Council on behalf of the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition.

I have been involved with this group for the past two years, along with the Lopez Island Prevention Coalition.

My presentation concerned one of the council’s possible legislative priorities dealing with a revision of liquor license laws.

Though they were supportive of the measure, the County Council wasn’t able to put this issue on their final priorities list that they will take to the Legislature this session.

I couldn’t let the work I had done go to waste. This inspired me to take action. From all of my trainings with the prevention coalition, I have learned that the most effective strategy for social change is policy change.

With this knowledge, I was inspired to write a bill that would revise a law dealing with businesses with liquor licenses, and the distances that those businesses can be from schools.

Currently, the law states that a business with a liquor license must be more than 500 feet away from the main entrance of the school building. However, this allows for some businesses to border the property line of the school. This bill changes that law, so that a business with a liquor license must be more than 500 feet away from the property line of the school.

After I wrote the bill, I talked with a representative of the Liquor Control Board, and they told me that they would be in support of this change to the law. After this, I contacted multiple organizations for support behind the bill.

I received support from the following organizations: Lopez Island Prevention Coalition, San Juan Island Prevention Coalition, Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council, and the Washington Association for Substance and Violence Prevention, among many other organizations.

After this, I contacted multiple State legislators and finally got in contact with Senator Kevin Ranker’s office. We scheduled a meeting over the phone, and in that meeting, the senator agreed to sponsor my bill, and to try to get it a hearing in front of a committee.

Two weeks ago, Ranker’s office introduced Senate Bill 5285. The senator’s office contacted me last week, and invited me to testify in front of the Senate Labor, Commerce, and Consumer Protection Committee.

Last Thursday I testified in front of the committee. Though I am unsure of the outcome of that committee meeting, I am confident that the bill will be successful.

I will be taking another trip to Olympia in mid-February with members of the San Juan County Youth Council. While there, we will be meeting with various legislators, and elected officials, asking for support for the bill, and learning the legislative processes that it will go through.

This experience has been an amazing one. Even if the bill does not get passed, the fact that I was able to bring this issue to the table, and get as far as I did, makes this very successful to me